Reversible activation of XA21-mediated resistance by temperature

Abstract

The pattern recognition receptor XA21 confers developmentally-regulated resistance to bacterial blight disease of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Under normal conditions, XA21 plants are susceptible when inoculated 2 weeks after germination and become fully resistant as they mature (after six-week-old). We report here that XA21-mediated resistance can be fully activated when the juvenile plants are grown at 27 °C under fluorescent light. Once transferred back to 31 °C under the same light intensity, XA21 seedlings lose the gained resistance. Temperature shift experiments indicate that high temperature treatment can suppress activated XA21 resistance. We also show that abundance of the XA21 protein is not significantly influenced by the temperature changes. These results highlight an interplay between development and temperature in this immune system. Full activation of resistance at juvenile stage will greatly facilitate the studies of XA21 immunity.

Notes

Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. J.B. Jones, Z. Mou and T.A. Davoli for critical reading of the manuscript. We specially thank Dr. Lawrence E. Datnoff for his support to Q.C.

Funding

This research was supported by the Alumni Fellowship at University of Florida and by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no.11632532 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and by supported by the USAID, as part of the Feed the Future initiative, under the CGIAR Fund, award number BFS-G-11-00002, the predecessor fund for the Food Security and Crisis Mitigation II grant.

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